ZEN Treasure, Dogen Shobogenzo and the Middle Way, MMK

Yudo J. Seggelke is studying the great work of master Dogen, especially Shobogenzo, and Nagarjuna, MMK since 20 years. He is Zen-teacher, author and engaged in environment and neuro science. He is practicing Buddhism since 46 years and living in Berlin. He received Dharma-Transmission from Nishijima Roshi and wants to continue his work; he is dharma brother of Brad Warner. In business he built computer systems for the protection of the environment

Mittwoch, 26. August 2015

In fact, it is
remarkable to see that some people act quite differently than they think they
would. Furthermore, often theoretical moral considerations, which sound good, are
often linked to the fact that
right is not being done.

In general, a thing is often called right which cannot be seen as rightful
acting once it has been examined. In addition, it is usually veiled and serves
an individual's personal advantage.

At this point
Dogen highlights the fact that there are many ways to do good, e.g. the
practice of the Pure Land and Zazen practice which he is very fond of.

It is important
that while acting rightfully, one acts carefully. Which means, that one should
respect other people and their actions. As Dogen underlines, this is not only
true in the case of friends and relatives, but even more so in the case of
rivals and enemies.

It applies both to
family life, while dealing with friends, and also at the workplace which is
often dominated by envy and a fight for important positions.

Doing the right
thing in a respectful manner takes place in the moment itself. As Dogen
mentions, we should not blame outer circumstances or situations as the cause if
we fail to do the right thing – this way we would be naming the wrong causes.
What applies to active action is also true in the case of letting things happen
- because we can realize right by letting things happen.

In such a case one
should not interfere in a disruptive or egoistic way – one would only generate
wrong oneself.

In a poem it is
said that heart and mind would naturally open up and become pure, if we were
not doing wrong and respectfully doing the right.

Also, this
statement should not be rooted solely in theory and conceptual thinking, but
should be discovered and experienced through acting.

While we act we
can learn how Buddhas are meant to be. Then we will not, according to Dogen,
have to act like ordinary people who accept the suffering produced by unjust
actions, resign themselves and will never break through to righteousness. This
is how we can avoid generating wrong in everyday life - and it may even be
possible to do good.

In a well-known
Koan-story a famous poet asked a great master:

“What
is the meaning of the Buddha-Dharma?”

The master
answered:

“Not
to generate wrong and to do what is right.”

The poet, who was
also a powerful governor, remarked snidely:

“If
that is true, even a three-year-old* can say that.”

The master
replied:

”A
three-year-old child can already speak the truth, but even a very experienced
man of eighty years cannot realize all.”

The poet then
thanked the master with a prostration, but he could not fully capture the
deeper meaning of this statement. He was known for his great poetic qualities
and praised greatly in the circles of writers and poets.

However, the
deeper meaning of the words, one should not generate wrong and do good, he was
only able to understand on a conceptual level – that is why it remained on the
level of words and thoughts. That is, according to Dogen, not surprising, as he
was a man of words and not a man of action. Practice and action are crucial and
they often differ from talking and thinking.

Obviously, due to
his great poetic skill, he was still far removed from the Buddhist practice of
Zazen and in everyday life.

In fact, it is
easy to say what would be morally correct and meaningful – namely not to
generate wrong and to do good. It is certainly true that even a child who has
learned to form proper sentences could say that.

But the realization
of this moral intent requires a new dimension to life. Often times, the
experience of a long life and the learning acquired along the Dharma path are
not sufficient to realize this completely.

For this
realization an intuitive clarity and the all-encompassing power of acting in
the present are absolutely necessary.

You can also call
them, as Dogen does, the “miraculous
causes and effects” or the “Buddha
causes and Buddha effects”.

When people do the
right thing – and this can be done in many ways - their spirit, form, body and
their positive energy are being realized.

Dogen questions
why the poet despises the three-year-old child when he says that even it could
phrase such a simple and obvious statement about injustice.

He (Dogen) doubts
that the poet even knows what a three-year-old child really is. If he knew it,
he would also have access to the Buddha Dharma. He says:

“Whoever
got to know a single particle, knows the whole universe – and he who fully
realized the true Dharma, realized the ten thousand Dharmas.”

According to
Dogen, one could even say that a child participates in the lion’s roar of the
Buddhist teachings right after it is born and embarks on its way to the
Buddha-Dharma.

Obviously, this
poet does not understand the lion’s roar of a child and dismisses the words of
the child as being unnecessary babble. But even a three-year-old child can
express the truth and we should thoroughly explore and understand it.

We should also
explore the question, if and when an experienced man of eighty years has
realized the truth.

For this, it is
useful not to beinfluenced by interpretations, so that we don’t remove anything
or add anything to true meaning – so that we view only reality and therefore
understand and experience truth the way it is.

Montag, 10. August 2015

In the first part
of the chapter, Dogen emphasizes active individual action. But he also mentions
that it is of due importance to let rightful action happen and not to tolerate
unjust action. More observant behavior which lets things happen can often be morally
rightful action.

In our lives we
often come into contact with unjust action. This can happen through friends,
relatives, but mostly through our enemies and rivals.

Buddhism teaches
with utmost clarity that it is not correct to allow others to do injustice and
to look on. Such behavior cannot be justified with the misunderstood comment,
“it is how it is” – this is to shirk responsibility in this world.

Beneath rightful
and wrongful action, according to Dogen, there is also neutral action – which
is neither just nor unjust.

This is because
injustice does not exist as a permanent, abstract reality, but is or is not generated
through our own actions which can only happen in the present moment.

Therefore, the
right or unjust action exists only in the present of the Now, and not
permanently.

From a Buddhist
perspective, the injustice of the past, which we can still remember, is only
roughly comparable to the injustice of the present – it is not identical.
Memories can never be the same as the reality of the present.

The same is true
of the expected and anticipated injustice of the future. According to Dogen, we
gain clarity about that through Buddhist practice, mainly Zazen.

In this connection
he mentions that, regarding the question of justice and injustice, people of
the Buddha-Dharma on the one hand and people of the ordinary world on the other
, differ greatly compared to other differ more greatly from each other than in
other areas within Buddhism.

As mentioned in
detail in the chapter “Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the
Whole of Existence (Uji)” in the Shobogenzo, the true time of the present
moment is inseparably connected to rightful and wrongful action.

If you only hear
the words that you should not commit wrong, this, according to Dogen, already
changes your behavior and actions to some degree. It is important that the
Buddhist practice of Zazen is carried out and that a moral code is not limited
to thinking and talking only, because the power of practice enables us to gain
more clarity and to transform our actions and behavior.

Due to this
practice one gains an intuitive and moral clarity in the present moment, so
that it is almost impossible to do wrong.

As we are always
acting in the present moment, this creates the clarity and power in the Now.

But this moment is
so short that we cannot reflect consciously on justice and injustice and act at
the same time.

While we are
acting rightfully, independent evil cannot evolve – at any place or at any
time.

This is even true
if we are living in an environment or get into a situation in which a lot of
injustice is perpetrated, and we believe that injustice has won over action.
Then, in fact, the thought or the idea injustice has become stronger and turned
into an essence, which rules the mind.

Dogen speaks about
it as follows:

“If
we devote our whole mind and our whole body to the practice (of Zazen), eighty
or ninety per cent are being realized (that no injustice is generated) just
before (at) this moment. And there is (also) the fact that after the moment (no
injustice) is generated”.

The practice of
Zazen is realized through physical and mindful action. This way we avoid
becoming contaminated.

As there is a
unity between the universe and the world in Buddhist practice, we can overcome
limitations and duality. According to Dogen, we can also say that mountains,
rivers, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars practice as well and that we
let them practice.

In this sense, the
Buddhas and their predecessors in the Dharma have never contaminated practice
and experience. They are free and have never limited themselves. This means: do
not commit wrong!

With regard to the
Buddhist teachings, injustice as an independent entity is neither existent nor
non-existent – but it is always generated immediately through the action
itself.

In the same way,
it does not have a material or immaterial quality because it is about
generating action in the Now. One should not understand it as being too
abstract, as it refers to a real and concrete act in the Here and Now. All too
easily injustice is minimized and whitewashed. However, these are only
assessments of people, which make things unclear.

While we regret
having done wrong, the strength and the desire for the rightful action develop,
according to Dogen.

If one has gained
the necessary strength and clarity through practice, it is not possible to deliberately
do wrong.

In the beginning
of the poem mentioned above it is said that we can practice many kinds of right. This involves concrete
action in the present moment – and the liberty we possess to do good and right
things (by acting in the present moment).

Discussions as to whether right
exists or not do not lead any further and necessarily become rather inflexible
on a theoretical level, which is far removed from acting in the Here and Now in
our everyday life. For then right is being discussed as a thing, which is not
correct.

Samstag, 25. Juli 2015

In this chapter
Dogen explains that, from a Buddhist perspective, injustice does not naturally
exist in this world and this universe. It is generated and contributed to by
man through unjust actions. This is a remarkable point of view as most
religions teach that evil is a part of man and this world, e.g. in the shape of
the devil. Man needs to fight it with the forces of good.

But in Buddhist
reality injustice as a form of evil or everlasting essence does not exist.
There are only evil deeds and actions of man which do not comply with our moral
principles and therefore violate the
laws of the universe.

Nevertheless,
wrong, unjust and criminal acts are in fact a part of the reality of mankind, which
one should not rationalize and push aside.

In the Shobogenzo,
Dogen warns us repeatedly not to become lost in illusions and not to be
mistaken about reality.

In this chapter
particularly, he emphasizes that moral principles and ethics, i.e. rightful
actions, are inseparably bound up with Buddhist theory and practice.

That is why
Buddhism is not a “value-free” philosophy or theory. It is the unity of body,
mind, action and morality.

Rightful or
wrongful actions in the Here and Now of the present moment are essential for
the Buddha Dharma.

If people
discuss the injustice of the world, in
an outraged and abstract way, as one can often witness, this is therefore much
too general and belongs to the realm of theory and philosophy.

One can have perfect
discussions about injustice, one can argue about it and, afterwards, feel
superior to others; but in reality often times you have done wrong yourself by
arguing aggressively to hurt others. In this case, you have violated the social
laws of Buddhism through causing conflict and trauma. Sometimes, such
aggressive disputes grow into an open verbal fight involving one ego against
another. This can, in no way, represent the Buddha-Dharma.

Dogen quotes an
old Buddha, who taught that:

“The
eternal Buddha says,

Not
to to generate wrongs,

To
practice the many kinds of right,

Naturally
purifies the mind;

This
is the teaching of the Buddha “

While translating
the German edition of Dogen’s “The Treasury of the T*rue Dharma E*ye” (Shobogenzo),
Mrs. Ritsunen Linnebach and I were considering thoroughly whether to use the
often applied phrase Not doing wrong” or not.

We came to the
conclusion that the precise translation from Japanese correlates better with
the term “to generate” – and that that was exactly what Dogen meant.

This term shows
very clearly that man generates injustice artificially – and that, naturally,
it would not exist in this universe.

Would you choose
another translation instead of “to abstain from evil” – one would get the
impression that evil naturally exists as
an essence in our world and we have to watch out for it – to abstain from it.
From our point of view, this is exactly what Dogen does not want to say.

The proposition
that injustice and evil are only created through action and do not exist
naturally in the harmony of the universe may be surprising at first. But taking
into consideration the fact that in Buddhism action gets most of the credit and therefore acting
is assigned the qualities of reality and truth and not any abstract idea or imaginary essence – then
this is of great importance for our lives.

It is just a
question of not generating wrong – and of committing ourselves in our lives and
in our actions to the many opportunities we have to do meaningful and good
deeds – with care and respect. This is the way to independence and freedom. To
generate wrong creates addiction.

Montag, 1. Juni 2015

Dogen suggests studying the old masters profoundly and
taking them as a role model. This would be more important than staying in close
contact with kings, lords, the important figures of public life, the rich and
famous of a country etc. It is better
not to engage with them. If one did
this, one would inevitably depend on them, would be fixated on praise
and criticism and hope for benefits from them.

As it is told,
in such an environment, even in monasteries, there is and there was envy and
jealousy – already at the time of
Gautama Buddha.

Those who are spiritually constrained cannot recognize a truly wise man
and even develop hostility towards
the saints.

According toDogen, even in Buddhism there are cases in
which great masters have been tortured and killed by those who did not
recognize who they really were.

Dogen advises insistently never to develop hatred in such
cases but rather to teach the
Dharma with great love and compassion to make a difference in people's lives and guide them onto the
right path.

Beginners on the path
to the Buddha-Dharma are still steeped in emotions and ideals which are not consistent with reality.

That is why it is important that the strength of the
first learning period does not weaken and fade away, but istransformed into pragmatic perseverance. This
is necessary to attain the
Buddha-way and to continue the practice:It is necessary to continue practising on our journey to the Buddha-way.

Nishijima Roshi recommends practising Zazen twice a day –
even if, after enthusiastic beginnings, it is not always easy and sometimes can
even be boring. And it is essential to find a true teacher. On this path, one
has to “climb mountains and cross oceans.”

Dogen says:

“While we are
seeking a guiding teacher, or hoping to find a [good] counselor, one comes down
from the heavens, or springs out from the earth.”

He refers to his own experience, when he was looking for a teacher himself. According to Dogen, the
closer you get to know a real master, the greater he appears to be as a man,
the more you can learn from him.

With a false master it is exactly the other way around.

Dogen also shows his
followershow to behave on the Buddha-way if they realize that in everyday life they have gotten tired and lazy. He
advises them to confront
the problem openly and not to deceive themselves.
In front of Buddha one should confess one'sinattentiveness and laziness wholeheartetly. This will create strength and energy which are needed if one isto redeem and purify oneself.

Then, the shallow, unsatisfying days of the past are gradually reduced and a change and a new start are possible. This way, the
old Karma can be cleared and the obstacles on our learning path can be set aside. An old master is quoted:

“
If you haven’t reached perfection in your past life, you can do it now.”

He continues: “After people have realized the truth, they
will be eternal Buddhas now.”On this path,
theory and thoughts alone won’t take
you further – as important asthey
may be. But one has to act and practice
in the Here and Now. For that, we need genuine trust in our body and mind.

“If we practice
like this, none of the eighty-four thousand verses will be withheld from us by
the voice and shape of the valley and the shape and voice of the mountains.”

Then we willrealize
that “the valleys and mountains are (real) valleys and mountains"

Dienstag, 19. Mai 2015

Another well-known story speaks about the Buddhist path of an old master who had already
been practising for more than 30
years of his life. One day he was wandering through the mountains, whenhe spotted from a hillside
a charming valley in which peach trees were blossoming in spring.

He suddenly realized the great truth and wrote the
following poem:

“I have been searching something sharp like a sword for
30 years like a traveler.During the time, treeleaves have fallen down many
times, and twigs spread too many times.However, just after looking at the so
gorgeous peach blossoms actually.Having
arrived at the present moment, I have thrown away the whole doubt.”

The sword is a symbol of the clarity of the body-mind. It cuts through confusion and
knots in life, so thatone can reach reality. The
symbolic meaning of the sword is similar to that of the diamond. With its sharpness it can also cut through the
thicket of preconceived opinions, validations and lalready made up ideas of the mind.

In ancient China, Koan-stories were common in which a
master refused to answer a well-versed and smart question of one of his
students, because he thought the question to be theoretical and made upfictitious.
Sometimes the master just repeated the question in the exact same way. In this way he wanted to push his
student towards direct experience
and action and to bring him
closer to reality. At the same time the master wanted to liberate him from a
rigid way of thinking and the use of
meaningless words.

The following theoretical questions
of distinctive reasoning, which the masters did not answer with words but with actions, are examples of this:

"How can
we make mountains, rivers, and the Earth part of ourselves?"

Or the question
of a wise philosopher:

"How does
pure essentiality suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the Earth?"

In the following, Master Dogen concentrates on the main contents and basic points of the Buddhist
teachings: perseverance, the strong desirefor truth and the awackening of the Bodhi-spirit, all of which are important premisses
to remember on the Buddha-way.

Hunger for fame, profit and
ego-pride have to be overcome.
Otherwise one blocks oneself on the way.

Dogen alsocriticizes
the factthat many contemporaries at that time had in
fact become monks although they did not
really strive for the Buddhist
truth or practise persistently. In China, the great
period of Zen Buddhism was already
in decline.

Many monks and abbots were formally Buddhists, but the
strength of the Buddha-Dharma had already become extinct and the pursuit of superficial recognition and
financial gain mostly prevailed.

Often times, it was a question of power and influence at
court.

Under these conditions, the reality and the truth of the
Buddha-Dharma lost their significance
and faded, leaving only images
and shadows.

This is recounted
in the famous allegory in which a living dragon pays the house of a lover of
dragon pictures and sculptures a visit. But seeing the living dragon
before him, the frightened man flees,
as he lovesonly
“beautiful and harmless” pictures, not reality itself.

Dogen describes it as follows:

“Their body, mind,
bones and their flesh have never lived the real Dharma. That is why they are
not one with the Dharma. They don’t receive and they don’t use the Dharma.”

According to Dogen, such times of decline are full of false teachers and
self-proclaimed masters who are not capable of guiding their students truly onto the Buddha-way.

For this reason Dogen
recommends examining teachers and masters precisely. He also points to the irretrievable damage causedif the teachings are not
transmitted in an authentic way.

In such cases, it would be better not to practise
the Buddha-Dharma at all – as this would not only be a waste of time, but would
also do severe damage.

Those who cannot rely on their own real experience depend
mostly on others and often need shallow confirmation from others – and then
confuse it with the great truth itself. Naturally, to realize this and to see
through it is not that simple.

Dienstag, 5. Mai 2015

Another famous story speaks about a master, who was later well known,
who could not make any progress,
though working intensely with his master on the Buddhist teachings. Being asked
describe the state prior to the birth of his parents, he could not answer. He was expected to answer this question from his own experience and not by citing the Buddhist writings, which he
had studied in detail. He was so discouraged that he decided to burn all his
theoretical writings, which he had studied so hard, and to dedicate himself solely to simple
tasks in the monastery.

His realization was,

“The image of a rice cake cannot satisfy
hunger.”

In this case the image of the rice cake refers to the
writings and Dharma-teachings of his own master. The teachings remain
theoretical and shallow, if they don’t correlate with experiences and practices in your own life.

Eventually the disciple asked his master for assistance,
so thathe could continue
on his Dharma-Path. But the master saw the extraordinary talent of his student
and refused to grant him this wish. The master was probably convinced that his student would gain
all the necessary experiences on his Buddha-way himself.

In most cases a verbal
instruction wears itself out in words and thoughts and cannot replace real
practice. Just like the image of the rice cake, which cannot be eaten and
cannot satisfy hunger.

The story continues by telling us that the monk left for
the mountains to seek solitude. He settled at a place where a famous master had
been practising for years. The monk had set aside to strive for awakening and
enlightenment. Instead he lived harmoniously within nature and with the passing of the seasons. He
practised persistently and intensely and many years went by.

He planted a bamboo tree, which he nourished and cared for. One day, as he was sweeping the path to his shed, a piece of brick hit the bamboo.

It is said that he reached
enlightenment by hearing this sound.

Grateful and deeply
moved, he bowed in the direction of his master, because he had not
explained hastily and to early what was waiting for him by eperiencing true
enlightenment. He had left it to his ownexperiences life. Due to this
fact alone, he had been able to wake
up to the truth.

Finally, he wrote the following verse:

“At a single stroke I lost recognition. No
longer need I practice self-discipline.[I am] manifesting behavior in the way
of the ancients. Never falling into despondency.”

Later on, his master confirmed
his state of enlightenment and said that this disciple had reached
perfection.

Donnerstag, 23. April 2015

In this extraordinary chapter Master Dogen describes the
central meaning and reality of the unity of nature and man. One could view
inanimate nature only from the perspective of matter and form, as is the case with the dimension of
materialism, but this would be one-sided and restricted.

Dogen points out that such an external perspective on
form or the elements of matter, such as water, earth, fire and air, only
illustrates the truth partially and
does not reach the core.

In contrast, with
the highest life philosophy in the Buddha Dharma, the awakening, one opens up to a complete new dimension, an
unexpected depth of focus on an
understanding and an experience of nature’s beauty and power.

Dogen calls the rivers and streams flowing in the valleys
tongues of the Buddha; they
teach us compellingly the true
Dharma. In fact, rivers and streams never stand still. The shape of the
mountains resembles Buddha’s body, which is marked by purity and virtue.
Nature, seen in this light, extends
far beyond its substantial and material aspect. In this sense, nature constitutes
a wonderful composition of reality, able to reach and bless man in the core of
his heart.

The bond, better, the unity with nature used to be a very important part of a
man’s life in China and Japan.

Life was inextricably bound upwith all sentient beings, includinganimals and non sentient beings, like pine trees,
bamboo, chrysanthemums, i.e. trees, plants and flowers. Within the Buddha
Dharma, all of this is lived, experienced and understood as harmony and as the natural law of the universe.

Dogen refers to a great Chinese poet who listened to the voice of a river in a mountain
valley and found awakening. Afterwards, he wrote the following poem:

“The voices of the valley are the(Buddha's) wide and long tongue. The shape of
the mountain is nothing else than his pure body."

The poet presented
his verses to a great Buddhist master who confirmed his awakening. But what had
happened when suddenly a whole new all-embracing dimension of life opened up to
him? Indeed, he had written great poetry before, but had not experienced
Buddhist practice and teachings comprehensively. According to Master Dogen, the
poet had not truly realized and
experienced the natural flow of the seasons: flowers in spring, the fresh pine saplings in summer and the
wonderful chrysanthemums in fall, not until he was allowed
to hear the voices in the river valleys.

Shortly before, he had heard a Zen Master's
lecture on non-sentient beings, like trees, flowers and plants, but it had yetnot reached his mind and
heart. Presumably there remained with
him the traces and effects
of the Master's words, which then led him that night to experience
his own deep realization of the Buddha Dharma.

Before, he had not been fully open and ready to receive
and feel so deeply the
all-encompassing meaning of the Buddhist teachings. It did not happen until the great awakening came to him that night in an almost mystical experience
through the voices of the river
valleys.

Man as subject and nature as the object had suddenly
merged to forma unity –
actually they had never been separated. But until thenthe poet had not realized it. Master Dogen asks, in his usual manner, whether the
poet awakened to the truth or whether the mountains and rivers awakened to it.

German Zen Blog

Yudo J. Seggelke

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Life and Buddhism

Buddhism: Yudo J. Seggelke is a Zen monk. He was ordained by the Japanese Master Nishijima who also transmitted the ‚Dharma’ to him. Before that he was a disciple of the Korean Master Dae Poep Sa Nim.

Areas of Activity: Early Buddhism, Masters Dogen and Nagarjuna, the practice of Zazen meditation, neurosciences, ethics, the foundation of the DONA publishing house and author, translator or editor of 17 books, five with Nishijima Roshi, especially translations, and collaboration with Ritsunen Linnebach on the German version of Dogen’s Shobogenzo.

He has given approximately 60 lectures on Buddhism, some of them in English, and chaired Buddhist seminars and discussion groups in Bern, Switzerland, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, Germany. He operates Dogen Sangha’s internet blogs and videos on Youtube.

Professional Career: Yudo Seggelke taught Informations Theory especially for the protection of the enviromment at BerlinUniversity.

Since his retirement he has devoted himself to teaching and practicing Buddhism.